Jill Kathryn Ker Conway

Background

Jill Kathryn Ker was born in Hillston, New South Wales, Australia, a small town 75 miles from her parents' sheep station, on October 9, 1934. Together with her two brothers, Ker Conway was raised in near-total isolation.

Education

In her early years, she was schooled entirely by her mother and a country governess. She earned her B. A. and a university medal at the University of Sydney in 1958 and received her Ph. D. from Harvard University in 1969.

Career

She was a teaching assistant at Harvard University. She followed her husband to Toronto, where he became one of the founders of York University and she joined the faculty of the University of Toronto. There she lectured on American history while completing her dissertation. Jill Conway rose to the rank of associate professor in 1972.

From 1973 to 1975 she served as the first woman vice president for internal affairs at the University of Toronto. In the mid-1970, Toronto, like other major universities, was struck with student rebellions, giving Conway an opportunity to demonstrate her cool and unflappable administrative style. In 1975 she was appointed the first woman president of Smith College, the largest privately-endowed college for women in the United States.

Conway helped to restore Smith's luster as the premier women's college in the United States. A superb fund-raiser, she increased the endowment from $82 million to $220 million. To accomplish this, Conway became a peripatetic president, criss-crossing the country to solicit alumnae, foundation, and corporate support. She served as director of IBM World Trade Americas/Far East Corporation, and on the board of overseers of Harvard University.

She taught a course on the "Social and Intellectual Context of Feminist Ideologies in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century America. " In 1982 she published The Female Experience in 18th and 19th Century America.

While not in favor of a women's studies program at Smith per se, Conway did encourage the development of the Smith College Project on Women and Social Change funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Out of her presidential budget she helped launch The Society of Scholars Studying Women's Higher Educational History, a group of researchers studying women's intellectual history. Some highly publicized conflicts erupted in the closing years of Conway's presidency.

In 1983, following student and faculty protests, Conway had to inform the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, that she could not guarantee that Kirkpatrick would receive her honorary degree and be heard as the commencement speaker without incident. The ambassador declined the offer to speak and was given her degree by the Smith trustees in a private ceremony.

When newly unionized food-service workers tried to organize Smith's Davis Student Center acrimony developed between the workers and the administration. The unionized workers claimed they were being unfairly treated by a "paternalistic and male dominated" management. The dispute was quietly settled. While funding for privately endowed, small, liberal arts colleges diminished throughout the early 1980, Conway's capable leadership allowed Smith College to survive and grow. By the end of her presidency Conway was perturbed by a new generation of women students, less overtly feminist but strongly career-oriented. According to her, this change in the attitudes of the Smith student body was "the only disappointment in a decade. "

Conway also served as a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In March of 1996, she succeeded to vice-chairman of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and in February of 1997.

Ker Conway started writing her first memoir after leaving Smith College, during her period at MIT. The Road from Coorain was published in 1989.

Achievements

• She interested in the role of women in American history. Her unpublished but widely-cited dissertation, "The First Generation of American Women Graduates, " an intellectual history of Jane Addams, The Road from Coorain and other progressive women reformers, almost single-handedly rekindled scholarly interest in women's contributions to Progressive Era America.
  
  She became the first woman president of Smith College in 1975. For this achievement, Time magazine named her one of its 12 "Women of the Year. " Conway changed the college from a genteel institution which eschewed feminist ideals into a women's college that respected and reflected feminist values. Through a strong financial aid program, Smith for the first time admitted older, working women and welfare recipients as Ada Comstock scholars. She endorsed the expansion of athletic facilities, enabling Smith to become the first women's college to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
  
  In 2013, she received a 2012 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. Ker Conway was appointed a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia on 10 June 2013.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Road from Coorain

    (t age 11, Conway ( Women Reformers and American Culture )...)

  • True North: A Memoir

    (Continuing from her memoir "The Road From Coorain', the a...)

Views

She called for women students to retain an interest in service to society and not to embrace unthinkingly high-earning professions. In this she remained faithful to the ideals of the social feminists of the Progressive generation whose careers she so well illuminated in her pioneering research.

Personality

Her executive abilities were well recognized.

Connections

While attending Harvard University Jill Ker met and married John Conway, a history professor.

Spouse:

John Conway